What type of physical trigger involves the collision of two molecular clouds?
Answer
An immediate, strong compression capable of wide-area fragmentation.
The collision between two molecular clouds, or between a molecular cloud and a faster atomic gas cloud, constitutes a direct physical trigger for star formation. Unlike slower processes such as the passage through a spiral arm or feedback from a single massive star, a cloud collision delivers an immediate and powerful compression event across a substantial region. This violent impact is capable of instantly initiating fragmentation and collapse over a wide area, providing the necessary density enhancement very quickly.
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